In Adult Beverages, Differentiation Through Collaboration

2014 may well be the year adult beverage categories collide, both in the bottle and in the glass. The practice of mixing categories certainly isn’t new; brandy brings weight and complexity to sangria, while the Irish Car Bomb typically marries Guinness with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish whiskey. But such marriages seem to be on the rise.

Operators also are tapping into the cross-category combo trend. Red Robin’s beer-fueled milkshake tipped off the trend’s mainstream appeal when the Samuel Adams-spiked libation made headlines in 2012. This past summer, the burger chain featured two Can-Crafted Cocktails, one of which combined Coors Light with ginger liqueur and lemonade, while the other mixed Blue Moon with Svedka Clementine Vodka, orange juice and lime juice.